London: Three police officers were killed on Monday in clashes with protesters in northern Tehran, a police spokesman said.

Video footage posted on social media on Monday evening showed clashes between security forces and members of a Sufi order in Iran known as the Gonabadi Dervishes.

They had gathered in front of a police station, demanding the release of some members of their sect.

"Some disruptors of security and order used a bus today and killed three police officers... The murderers were arrested seconds after their crime," police spokesman Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi said on state television.

Several dervishes have been arrested in the last two months, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a non-profit group based in New York.

Ten members of the Sufi order in Iran were injured and three others arrested in the city of Kowar, in Fars Province after police attacked their rally on January 14, CHRI said. They were also demanding the release of Sufi detainees.